We set up your fares so every flight has more prices to sell

Travellers differ in when they book, how long they stay and how much flexibility they need, so one flight needs many prices.

Some people book months ahead and others the day before. Some stay two nights on business, others two weeks on holiday. Some need to change their plans and others never will. Each price point is a fare with its own conditions, such as advance purchase, length of stay, changes and refunds, and baggage, so each kind of traveller finds a fare that fits. Reservation systems and GDSs carry these price points in booking classes, a design the industry inherited. What counts is how many price points you sell and how far apart they sit.

We space price points on a logarithmic scale, so every step is the same percentage. On an illustrative long-haul return from USD 500 net in promo to USD 3,500 in full economy, six price points sit about 48% apart and 26 sit about 8% apart. With wide steps, some travellers pay less than they would have paid and others do not buy. We count the price points you sell today, by route and season, and the booking classes held for awards, groups or partners, then build as many as your flights can use. Every channel can show a filed fare, so this work reaches every sale.

When the booking classes run out, the reservation system can still hold more prices.

A fare can be made valid only while a second booking class is also open, for example a fare in C that needs M to be available. One class can then carry several prices that open and close at different moments, on top of the classes you already use. ATPCO lists this dual booking-class validation as working in all channels, including travel agents who book through a GDS. Two-character classes such as YN also exist, but only inside airline systems, so travel agents cannot sell them.

We check what your reservation system supports and add price points where your demand needs them.

Source: ATPCO updates, September 2018.

Adding brands does not use up booking classes, because the fare basis tells the brands apart.

One booking class can sell Basic without a bag, Standard with a bag and Flex with free changes, all from the same seats at three prices, so three brands triple the price points a flight can sell (a worked example). We file brands and optional services so travel agents can see and sell them. Brands in one class open and close together, so a fare that must close early keeps a class of its own.

Brands are also how ancillary revenue grows. We design the extras sold on their own, such as bags, seats and upgrades, and the moments each one is offered: at booking, after booking, at check-in and at the gate. We judge brands by total revenue per passenger, because a bag fee can move revenue out of the fare without adding to it.

A filed fare is a fixed step. Continuous pricing lets the price sit anywhere between steps, and dynamic pricing moves it as bookings, demand and rival fares change.

This works where your own system builds the offer: your website, your app and NDC connections, with an offer engine. Travel agents who book through a GDS still see the fares you file and the classes you open, so the filed price points stay the base. We check what your reservation system and website can do today, what it would take to add more, and which rules keep prices defensible: how far a price may move, how fast, and when to match a rival or hold.

You can try this on one flight in the pricing simulator.

A price earns nothing if the passenger cannot see it.

Your website, NDC and GDS travel agents can show different fares for the same seat, and interline and codeshare partners can sell your network worldwide. NDC lets your own system build the offer for travel agents, with brands and extras, instead of the GDS calculating it from your filed data. We set out which agencies and aggregators to connect, what content to send and how bookings are serviced after the sale.

On one illustrative EUR 500 ticket, selling through a GDS and travel agency costs about EUR 20 more than selling directly, so we also measure what each channel costs you per booking.

Two one-way tickets should not cost less than the return they replace.

When one-way fares are priced on their own, travellers can combine two of them and pay less than the return. We compare one-way and return prices route by route, for each brand and season, and set one-way levels that keep the return the better buy. The analysis is tailored to your routes, because markets with many one-way travellers need different rules from markets where most trips are returns.